Fuel cells are well known and are commonly used to produce electrical energy by means of electrochemical reactions. The fuel cell produces electricity by bringing a fuel such as hydrogen, methanol, hydrocarbons, or natural gas, for example, and an oxidant, typically air, into contact with two suitable electrodes and an electrolyte.
When hydrogen is used as the fuel and air as the oxidant, the use of fuel cells in power generation offers potential environmental benefits because the by-products of such a reaction are heat and water. When other fuels and oxidants are employed, the by-products will accordingly differ. When compared to more conventional power generation equipment, e.g., fossil fuels or nuclear activity, fuel cells have advantages of less pollutant, lower noise generated, increased energy density and higher energy conversion efficiency. Fuel cell power generation is proportional to the consumption rate of the fuel and oxidant.
Fuel cells can be used in a wide variety of devices where electricity is required, including portable electronic products, home-use or plant-use power generation systems, large-size power generation systems, military equipment, the space industry, and vehicles such as automotive, truck, and bus power systems, as non-limiting examples.
A common problem that has to be addressed with fuel cell powered vehicles is the removal of water generated by the chemical reactions within the fuel cell. In operation, fuel cells produce an appreciable amount of water. This water needs to be removed from the vehicle in some way, and the removal presents an extra amount of effort and additional steps of work on the part of the vehicle operator.
Traditionally, the water or water vapors has been simply vented to the ambient environment outside the fuel cell system or allowed to drain or drip on the floor. These disposal methods may not be desirable depending upon the actual application of the fuel cell system. The water may also be stored in a holding tank for manual disposal later.
In the above examples, storage of the water in a storage tank for manual discharge at some later point may be preferred, yet manual discharge of the water presents an additional operational complication to the operation of the fuel cell powered vehicle. Vehicles equipped with other power sources do not require a comparable water discharge operation in addition to the operation of fueling. The additional water discharge step takes time and increases the amount of activity necessary to keep the fuel cell powered vehicle operational. Lack of removal of the water may also result in functional difficulties of the fuel cell or eventual curtailment of the use of the fuel cell powered vehicle until the water can be manually discharged.
It would therefore be desirable to incorporate automated systems and methods to remove the water and to eliminate the need for one or more separate steps to discharge the water from the vehicle. The water may be automatically drained or discharged from the holding tank while the fuel cell powered vehicle is being refueled.